the Qur’an itself recounts, and their corroborating testimonies and close parallels appear in the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, and the other prophetic scriptures. Indeed, whoever reflects on the prophecies of the earlier messengers and ponders the Qur’an will be left in no doubt that Muhammad is truly the Messenger of Allah and that Moses is authentically the Messenger of Allah, for he will witness how perfectly the two Books—the Torah and the Qur’an—agree with one another, while knowing full well that Moses, peace be upon him, did not receive anything from Muhammad, Allah bless him and grant him peace, nor did Muhammad, Allah bless him and grant him peace, take anything from Moses.

For it is unanimously known to those familiar with his life that Muhammad—Allah bless him and grant him peace—was an unlettered man from an unlettered people, living in Mecca where no one preserved the Torah, the Gospel, or the Psalms. He never left their midst except for two journeys to al-Shām: once, before reaching puberty, when he accompanied his uncle Abū Ṭālib and never parted from him; and again, on a trading journey, accompanied by Maysarah, when he was in his early twenties, travelling with companions who were aware of his every circumstance. Never did he sit with any scholar from whom he learned even a single point—whether of the Jewish scholars, the Christian scholars, or anyone else—neither with Baḥīrā nor with any other.

Rather, when Baḥīrā the monk saw him, he recognised him from the descriptions that had reached him, informed his entourage of this, and advised them to protect him from the Jews. Yet Muhammad did not learn a single word from Baḥīrā or from anyone else. We shall—if